NDP mulls apprenticeship challenge

Unions worry about involvement of ‘open shop’ employers; some workers critical of system

The NDP government will have to weigh the pleas of “open shop” employers against the concerns of trade unions when it announces its new apprenticeship strategy.

Non-unionized employers, known as open shops, as well as some trade apprentices insist the provincial system is broken and needs to be fixed.

Changes to the system last summer prevent apprentices from working out west and counting their hours toward certification. The exception is that a worker can join a union in Nova Scotia and be certified for work in other provinces by that union.

Open shop employers say this puts them at an unfair disadvantage.

“That’s just not fair, that’s not right,” said Mike Kydd, president of the Merit Contractors Association of Nova Scotia.

“We are firm on that, that has to be changed. Why should union apprentices working out of province receive preferential treatment over open shop?”

The unexpected change — the province says it discovered it is not authorized to approve hours worked out of province — caught employers and apprentices off guard.

Duncan Gillis lives in Halifax but started working in Alberta last September without realizing the rules had changed. He’s worked about 2,200 of the 8,000 hours he needs for his ticket as an electrician. But now his work is not being counted toward that quota.

“Everything I buy is from Nova Scotia. I pay all my taxes in Nova Scotia. I have a Nova Scotia health card. I’m a Nova Scotian, but they won’t count my hours.

“I don’t really know where to go from here.”

Gillis may be forced to register as an apprentice in Alberta. If so, he can transfer his hours back to Nova Scotia later. But this would likely mean having to re-work some hours and having to take eight weeks off work to do his schooling in Alberta rather than at home.

It’s also frustrating that he works with apprentices from elsewhere in the Maritimes who don’t have this problem.

“I’m having a hard time realizing why Nova Scotia apprentices are the only ones that aren’t allowed to reap the benefits of the oilsands,” Gillis said.

The province is expected to unveil its new apprenticeship strategy within the next couple of weeks. However, some have concerns about counting all hours worked out of province.

Open shop apprentices should have equal rights but the province needs a way to verify their workplace, said Ron MacDonald, a training co-ordinator with the Atlantic Canada Regional Council of Carpenters, Millwrights and Allied Workers.

“Maybe in an open shop they could be working for the underground economy, or maybe not working under journeymen,” MacDonald said.

Out-of-province hours are only one of the contentious issues that will have to be dealt with in the new apprenticeship strategy. Open shops are also calling for a loosening of apprentice-to-journeymen ratios.

Currently, apprentices must be mentored by experienced trade workers on a one-to-one ratio. Open shops are calling for each skilled worker to be able to take on two apprentices.

It’s widely acknowledged that the one-to-one ratio is not strictly enforced in Nova Scotia. MacDonald concedes that even in union shops, “it does occasionally happen. It happens in all trades.”

Training officers from the Apprenticeship Board are supposed to monitor work environments, but there are just 13 training officers, with a support staff of 12, for 5,866 apprentices. That works out to each officer having an average case load of 451 apprentices.

When rule breaches are found, enforcement officers will give warnings before issuing fines. The province did not level any fines under the Apprenticeship and Trades Qualification Act in 2012.

In 2011, five businesses were fined between $457 and $917 under the act.